Faith is not meant for times of comfort and ease, when all is in our control and life is sweet. Faith proves its very essence at the times where you cannot stand because of the pain, when you have no idea which way to go, when the road seems so long you think you’ll never see the end. Faith begins when the bridge across the canyon is blown out and the pieces of your life lay scattered across the field of your dreams. Trials, tribulations, breakdowns, and moments of great pain are the waypoints that define our lives, the very moments that dictate who we really are and provide us the most opportunity to draw closer to our Creator. These are the moments where we finally stop and look up for help. It seems that only in the moments of great need do humans realize their frailty and cry out to the One who provides great assistance for their need.

The Creator desires to partner with His creation and be close to them. He's looking through the eyes of eternity and seeing just how ill-prepared we actually are. He knows that closeness only comes through someone seeking Him in prayer and intentional relationship -- or through the pain. And because we humans are so prone to seeking our own pleasures and forgetting that this life is just a preparation for eternity, He allows pain to enter our lives for the sole purpose of re-establishing a relationship with us. Pain causes the soul to be stopped in its own selfish tracks and to turn toward the Creator for assistance, thus reconnecting and deepening its relationship with Him and furthering the preparation for eternity.

Faith is the water that puts out the flame of pain. Faith is the evidence of the eternity that is unseen. Faith is the intangible substance of what we cannot see on this earth but is the very reality of every structure the Kingdom of Heaven is built upon. Faith does not ask for answers. Faith knows it IS the answer. Faith says "God is good and is good all the time." Faith KNOWS that "all things work together for good for those who love the Lord and are called according to His purpose." Faith produces peace.

Trials are simply the tools God uses to test the utter boundaries of our faith. Trials resist our faith like gym weights to the body. The trial is meant to overwhelm the faith. That's what causes us to call for divine assistance to fill the gap from the end of our faith to the depth of the trial. If we've used all our faith and have partnered with the Creator, when the trial is over we're left with greater faith in and adhesion to our Maker. He's a good Father and we're trying to have a happy life. He's trying to prepare us for every blessing possible in eternity. Pain and loss produce power and peace in the believer. And I have discovered that power and peace only come through praise. Praise is the key to the engine of faith.

Father, thank You for pain. And thank You for the trials I am currently going through. I fully admit that I cannot make it to the other side of this chasm without Your divine assistance. But You have called me to the other side so I won't turn back. I will get out of this boat in the storm I’m in. And with tears falling down my face I will come to the Lord of the storm. I will let You draw me close and increase my faith. Give me an eternal perspective, Father, and thank You for caring enough about me to do whatever it takes to prepare me for the next life, the one that really matters. I understand now that You saw that I was leaving blessings on the table and that only through great pain would I qualify to receive what I didn't even know I was missing. Where once I cried and wept at the utter destruction, I now see You are simply clearing space to build eternal structures. And it all started with pain. Thank you, Father, for the power of pain.